These flags give youth and adults the opportunity to start conversations about consent!
This interactive tool allows people to think about the spectrum of verbal and non-verbal ways consent and non-consent is communicated. Additionally, this activity goes beyond just defining consent and asks participants to apply the concept of complex consent. This process makes them put consent in their own words and terms which in turn makes it more likely to be realistic and therefore applied in…
In this webinar, participants will learn how to boost and sustain their prevention work by connecting and integrating with existing sexual health education efforts. Violence preventionists can make the most of current national research, the Washington Healthy Youth Act, and Washington Department of Health Guidelines. We will discuss best practices related to STD and teen pregnancy prevention and sexual violence prevention. Preventionists will leave this webinar being able to make the case…
How do you craft a psychoeducational support group for teen survivors of sexual abuse and assault that addresses their unique needs and acknowledges the effects of sexual violence in their lives? What practical steps do you need to take in forming and facilitating these support groups to keep them securely anchored in the values of our field? This webinar focuses on facilitator-tested steps to use empowerment-based advocacy principles, an anti-oppression framework, and trauma-informed…
An unpublished report based on a Department of Justice study titled "Preventing Revictimization in Teen Dating Relationships" has just been released, and contains some thought-provoking results. The study was conducted under the direction of Dr. Anne P. DePrince of the Traumatic Stress Studies Group of the University of Denver. Briefly, they conducted research with high-risk adolescent girls involved in the child welfare system, with the goal of preventing revictimization. They tested two…
The Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs (WCSAP) recently had the privilege of working with the Washington State Supreme Court Gender and Justice Commission, judicial officers, and the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC) to develop the first edition of the "Sexual Offense Bench Guide for Judges."
The purpose of a bench guide is to educate judicial officers (judges or commissioners) who decide particular types of cases about the law, and also about the…
Are you aware that the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) requires you to have either a
depending on the number of employees you have? WAC 296-800-130 clearly identifies this requirement.
If you have 11 or more employees on the same shift in the same location, you must establish a safety committee, which consists of representatives elected by employees as…
We've spent a lot of time figuring out what the spectrum of sexual violence looks like, but do we have concrete ideas about what the alternative is? Healthy sexuality is a complex and nuanced subject area that allows us to explore the positive, healthy, fulfilling, and violence-free expressions of sexuality.
Infusing healthy sexuality messaging into your work will likely require preparation. Do you know why healthy sexuality is an integral part of our prevention work? How can you…
Terminating an employee is usually at the top of a manager's "Things I Hate to Do" list. Many sexual assault programs have a "family" feel to them, and it's tough to come to a parting of the ways within a close-knit organization. Nonetheless, no one benefits when you continue to hold onto an employee who is not fulfilling job requirements, who is too burned-out to function, or whose toxic attitude is damaging the organization as a whole. When the time comes to say goodbye, there are some…
Posters campaigns can be a great way to raise awareness and when used in conjunction with other activities may be part of a more comprehensive prevention project. Here are some examples of poster campaigns that are either pro-active about stopping sexual & dating violence or promote positive messaging and environments.
We know that young people are digital natives — they have grown up in a world where technology is incorporated into their lives. So what does this mean for prevention work? In this webinar we will highlight research dealing with youth and technology, examine some common statistics regarding youth safety online, and present various methods of incorporating digital safety into primary prevention work.
Like suicidality, talking about self-harm directly with young people who have been engaged in this coping mechanism can be hard. However, because such a vital part of our work as advocates is to discuss coping strategies and help survivors discover what mechanisms work best for them, discussions that involve self-injury, self-medication, eating disorders, engaging in risky sex, and other self-harming behaviors are integral.
Advocates are often the only people in a survivor’s life…
Based on data from the first-of-its-kind national survey, this report reveals devastating statistics about the frequency of blatant discrimination and outright violence against transgender people in schools, the workplace, healthcare, the criminal justice system, and social services.
The report also paints a picture of the incredible resiliency and strength of individuals, their families, and the community. Despite pervasive and repeated bias, discrimination, and violence, survey…
Confidentiality is the cornerstone of advocacy. While the basic principles of maintaining respect and privacy apply to survivors of all ages, consent and confidentiality issues become especially important and a bit more complex when the survivor is under the age of 18. By providing some clarity around these complexities, our hope is to ultimately increase minors' access to and utilization of advocacy services. Some of the issues that must be considered when working with minors are:
…This Guide is a supplement to the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs' (WCSAP) general guide to psychoeducational support groups, Circle of Hope. Circle of Hope provides information about the nature of psychoeducational groups and how they differ from self-help and therapy groups. In addition, there is general…
This webinar will be focused on techniques and suggestions for building in community and participant retention. Psycho-educational support groups create a community in which members offer and receive support, validation, connection, healing and hope. Community requires commitment and connection, but maintaining group attendance after the first couple of weeks can be a challenge.
How frustrating is it to start out with a group of 10 committed group members and watch the number dwindle…
Trauma can profoundly affect children's development. In an article highlighted on the website Zero to Three (National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families), Dr. Theodore Gaensbauer discusses the "Developmental and Therapeutic Aspects of Treating Infants and Toddlers Who Have Witnessed Violence." Dr. Gaensbauer's framework for understanding how trauma affects children has even wider significance, applying to older children and to those affected…
Statistics can help people who are not familiar with an issue to understand it better. In the case of statistics about sexual violence, they can help community members, allied professional partners, and funders understand
It is important to use statistics correctly…
Foshee, V. et all (2012). Journal of Adolescent Health.
Often when we think about teen dating abuse prevention programs, we think of programs delivered in a school setting. Moreover, we may even think specifically of the curriculum Safe Dates, as it is one of the only evidence-based teen dating abuse prevention curricula. However, the Families for Safe Dates program combined components of the Safe Dates curriculum with additional activities and presents them in a very new format: at…
Sometimes we use a myths/facts approach in community education. Is it useful? Not really.
Take this example from a flyer from the Centers for Disease Control.
Researchers read the flyer to people, and got some surprising results. Within 30 minutes, older people remembered about a…
Prevention requires building lasting, meaningful relationships with your community. The below list, taken from Community Building: What Makes It Work, describes some of the key skills required in facilitators.
We are trying to prevent a social problem: sexual violence is epidemic. Since we are tackling such a large issue, our efforts can draw disagreements or resistance. It is easy to fall into the argument trap, and try to fight fire with fire. After all, if they only understood, how could they possibly disagree?
Statistics are a natural thing to reach for when justifying arguments or preparing presentations. For you and me, statistics might tell a rich…
Sitting through a presentation or training can be difficult, but every now and then there is one that just works. You are excited, engaged, and alert! You care! You want to be there!
What separates the wheat from the chaff? What made that training matter to you? If it mattered to others in the room as well, it is very likely the trainer's methods were informed by understanding adult learning styles.
Adults have specific needs around learning. We want to know what is in it for…
When you have a staff member who has a negative attitude and doesn't really seem to care about the work, the first thing that comes to mind is "burnout." However, it is important to distinguish whether the attitude and behavior is a result of vicarious trauma — the changes in a person's inner experience that come about because of handling an overload of other people's traumatic experiences — or burnout, which is dissatisfaction with the job itself. In either case, it is important to assess…
In this webinar we will explore using the bystander approach of sexual violence prevention with marginalized communities. Participants will expand their knowledge of the LGBTQ community, learn the basic principles of bystander intervention, and finally, using the LGBTQ population as an example, will practice customizing bystander intervention programs to the populations we work with. Though most bystander intervention programs in existence are geared towards college or university students,…
